The LIGO gravitational wave observatory in the United States is so sensitive to vibrations it can detect the tiny ripples in space-time called gravitational waves. These waves are caused by colliding black holes and other stellar cataclysms in distant galaxies, and they cause movements in the observatory much smaller than a proton.
Now we have used this sensitivity to effectively chill a 10-kilogram mass down to less than one billionth of a degree above absolute zero.
